Taxes in Tulsa

I have arrived in Tulsa, OK and have been here a week and three days. We left Denver not this Saturday but the Saturday before that. We drove through KS which is just as boring as driving through Illinois. We stayed in a hotel for a night and got to Tulsa about lunch time on Sunday. The drive wasn't as bad as driving to NOLA. It wasn't as long only about 10 hours.

My team and I are living in a community center that is right behind the Police Station. The center is not in operation anymore which is great for us. The center is really big with its own gym (full size basketball court), large kitchen, and separate locker rooms for guys and gals. We all sleep in a big open common area on cots with the exception of Drew and Kristy who decided to get fancy and bought air mattresses. The cot isn't as bad as I thought it would be to sleep on but I think it helps that I have a pad to go on top of it. As I said the kitchen is really large with ten times the amount of counter space as the house in NOLA. There are even enough selves for each of us to have one. The only down side is that when we first arrived we had no fridge for the first two days and when we got them they were dorm size fridges. I will say though that you can fit more into one than I thought. The other major problem we had when we first arrived was the lack of hot water. Since I have been here I have taken two of the coldest showers of my life. The first day I just washed my hair in water that I heated up on the stove. Then the water got "fixed" but only a couple of people were able to take warm showers before it went cold again. So last Monday I took the coldest shower that I hope will be my last. Imagine taking a shower with water that on the verge of freezing. I couldn't stay in the water for very long because it was making my head throb. The hot water has now been fixed along with the heater and we can take warm showers and turn up the heat from 59 to 70 if we feel like it.

Our sponsors have been really great about fixing our problems and then getting us additional items like a TV and a box so we now get a few channels (FOX, CW, CBS). They have also gotten us tickets to see the weekend home games for the Tulsa 66's (basketball team) and to the aquarium. I really like them and from that aspect I think this project will be good.

Tax prep isn't as bad a I thought it would be. I'm not sure that I will like being inside all day so I am hoping that we will be able to spend sometime outside in the nice weather. Last week we did a little training but mostly we did office work that consisted of emptying folders and putting labels on folders. We also sorted and delivered 40,000 fliers to the Tulsa public schools about the free tax program. This week we started our IRS tax preparer certification. We had to do six different tax returns one of witch took me about an hour and half to finish. I hope I don't have to do one of these for real. We start working with clients tomorrow.

This past weekend we got out and explored Tulsa a little. Friday night the team split up and went to two different restaurants. I went to The Sushi Train and tried sushi for the first time. It was pretty good. We then went to a move at the dollar theater. I saw "Law Abiding Citizen" an intense movie but good. Saturday I went with a couple of people to Borders in order to get the Internet since we don't get it at the community center. We spent most of the afternoon there. That night some of the team went out while the rest of us stayed home and watched a movie. Sunday was laundry and food shopping day. Most of the team did laundry in the morning but it took almost 2 hours because there were so many people there. I spent the rest of the day back at the community center. I went for a run, read, and learned how to make a "granny square"! After dinner Pat, Amanda, and I went to Wal-mart to do our food shopping for the week. We spent $300 which was under budget by about $15. Next time I am able to get wireless I will post some photos of Tulsa and the community center. Hope all is well!!!!